Private one-to-one tuition · Italiano
Private Italian lessons for people who want to be let in.
Italy is generous with visitors and quite different with people who speak Italian. One specialist chosen for you from our selected network, and a programme built around the part of Italy you are trying to belong to.
Who it is for
Who books private Italian with us
Italian is almost never a career obligation. It is bought by people with a house, a family, a passion or a passport application — and each of those needs a different Italian.
The household with a place in Italy
Tuscany, Puglia, the lakes or a flat in Rome — plus a geometra, a comune, a plumber and neighbours who are ready to adopt you the moment you try.
Practical Italian for property, bureaucracy and village life, taught alongside the social Italian that turns neighbours into friends.
The citizenship applicant
Italian descent, a jure sanguinis or residency route, and a B1 language certificate written into the requirement.
Structured preparation to CILS or CELI B1 with the exam format practised properly, plus the everyday Italian the process itself demands.
The art, food, design or music professional
Curators, chefs, dealers, architects, singers and buyers whose field was largely written in Italian in the first place.
The specialist register of your sector — sources, suppliers, scores, menus, terminology — taught with the general Italian around it.
The pupil or student sitting Italian
GCSE, A-Level or IB Italian, often ab initio, and often the only person in their year taking it.
Specification-accurate preparation with oral rehearsal and written method, at the pace of a student who has no class to hide in.
The Learn&Co method
A selected network first. Your match, second.
We do not go looking for a Italian tutor once you enquire. The selection has already happened — our network is built slowly, from specialists we have interviewed, observed and chosen to work with.
What happens after your enquiry is the second layer, and it is personal. Maria hears the brief, chooses the specialist inside that network who fits it, and introduces you on a chemistry call before anything is committed.
“Amazing at understanding what people need and matching students with the perfect tutor…”
A network selected before you arrive
Italian specialists we have already interviewed, referenced and chosen — for teaching skill and subject depth, not simply for a passport.
A conversation before a tutor
Twenty minutes with Maria: what you need Italian for, by when, and how you learn well.
Matched from the network
The specialist who suits your goal, level and temperament is identified inside the existing network and named to you, with Maria overseeing the match. No rota, no directory, no algorithm.
A chemistry call, then oversight
You meet them before anything is booked. Monthly reports, a founder check-in at week six, and rematching if the fit ever stops working.
The tutors
What an Italian specialist brings that a generalist cannot
Italian flatters beginners and then quietly asks for a great deal. Every tutor in our network is a qualified teacher of Italian — the selection is about what they do once the easy first months are over.
They get the past tenses right early
Passato prossimo against imperfetto is where most learners freeze, and passato remoto appears the moment you open a novel or travel south. A specialist teaches the choice as meaning, not as a rule to memorise.
They teach the pronouns Italians actually use
Ci, ne and combined forms like glielo are ordinary speech and almost never taught properly. They are the difference between correct Italian and Italian that sounds Italian.
They know that Italy is regional
Standard Italian in the lesson, with honest preparation for the accent, rhythm and dialect words of the region your life is actually in — Veneto, Rome, Naples or Sicily are not interchangeable.
They know the citizenship and school exams
CILS and CELI B1 have their own formats, and school Italian has its own literature and oral demands. Preparation is built for the specific paper in front of you.
Life in the language
Italian is not really spoken. It is joined in.
Everyone talks at once, nobody finishes, the argument about lunch is louder than the argument about politics, and none of it is rudeness — it is participation. The moment you can interrupt in Italian, and be interrupted, you stop being the guest at the end of the table.
That is the target of your programme: not a tidy monologue, but the messy, fast, affectionate business of being part of the conversation.
Speaking over, politely
The rhythm of Italian conversation — how to come in, hold the floor, and disagree warmly — practised deliberately, because it cannot be read in a book.
The Italy you are going to
Standard Italian as your base, with the vocabulary, accent and habits of your own region layered on top.
Culture as material
Food, film, football, opera, design or history — whichever brought you here becomes the practice material.
In practice
What the lessons actually look like
The most common question after price. Here is the shape of the thing you are buying.
- An hour a week, or considerably more
- One hour a week is the standard rhythm and the basis of our guide prices. Before a move, a certificate deadline or a long summer in Italy, clients often run two or three, or a short intensive block.
- Online, in person in London, or both
- Most clients learn online with the same tutor throughout. Face-to-face tuition at home or at your office is available across London and is quoted individually.
- Your material, not a course book
- The notary's email, the builder's quote, the recipe, the libretto, the syllabus. Real Italian from your own life, worked on properly.
- Written up every month
- Your tutor writes a monthly progress report against the objectives agreed at the start, and Maria checks in with you at week six.
Corporate clients
Trusted by global businesses
Language programmes delivered inside law firms, hedge funds, publishing houses and global property groups.
Partner schools
Working with leading schools in the UK and Europe
Exam preparation, tutor placement and curated exchanges with demanding independent schools here and with partner schools across Europe.
Real clients, real results
Italian learners, in their own words.
Verified reviews from Learn&Co clients learning Italian.
“I found Learn&Co when searching for someone to help me rediscover my lapsed Italian language. Maria was totally professional whilst being warm and approachable. She assessed my requirements and found me the perfect tutor. Having spoken…”
Investment
One rate, four ways to commit to it.
Every client receives the identical service — the matching, the chemistry call, the bespoke programme, the reporting and the founder oversight. The only thing that changes is how many hours you commit to, and the hourly rate falls as you do.
Guide prices are based on one hour of private online tuition a week and include VAT. Face-to-face lessons in London, additional weekly hours and intensive programmes are quoted individually.
Flexi
4 hours
Month to month
£75/hr£300 in total
Discovery
12 hours
Up to 3 months
£71/hr£855 in total
Momentum
24 hours
Up to 6 months
£68/hr£1,620 in total
Mastery
48 hours
Up to 12 months
£64/hr£3,060 in total
Every private plan, whichever you choose, includes
Bespoke programmes — not lesson bundles.
- A discovery call with Maria, our founder
- Personal matching from our selected network
- A chemistry call before you commit
- A programme written from your objective
- Specialist tutors, vetted and selected
- Monthly written progress reports
- Week-six founder check-in
- Rematching at any point, at no cost
Not sure which plan? Maria will recommend one on the call.
Before you book
Private Italian lessons — your questions, answered.
- How much do private Italian lessons cost?
- Private Italian tuition is bought in hours. Flexi is 4 hours at £75/hr (£300 in total); Discovery 12 hours used within up to 3 months at £71/hr (£855); Momentum 24 hours within up to 6 months at £68/hr (£1,620); Mastery 48 hours within up to 12 months at £64/hr (£3,060). All prices include VAT. Face-to-face lessons in London and intensive programmes are quoted individually.
- How is my Italian tutor chosen?
- The selection happens before you enquire: every tutor in our network has already been interviewed, referenced and chosen by us. When you come to us, Maria listens to your objective, level, temperament and timetable, then names the specialist inside that network who fits the brief. You meet them on a chemistry call before anything is committed.
- I need B1 Italian for citizenship. How long does that take?
- From a genuine standing start, most adults doing one hour a week with regular independent practice need somewhere between twelve and eighteen months to be safely at B1. With two hours a week and a firm deadline it is often faster. We assess honestly at the outset and build the plan backwards from your application date.
- Is Italian easier than French or Spanish?
- Pronunciation is far kinder — Italian is written as it is said — so the first months feel excellent. The demands come later, with the past tenses, the pronoun system and the subjunctive. A good tutor spends the easy period quietly laying the groundwork for the harder one.
- What if my tutor is not right for me?
- We rematch you, at no cost and without any argument. Fit is our responsibility rather than yours, and rematching is a normal part of the service rather than a complaint.
- Do you teach in person in London, or only online?
- Both. Online lessons are available anywhere in the world and are what our guide prices are based on. Face-to-face Italian lessons are available across London and some surrounding areas, subject to tutor availability. Many clients run a hybrid of the two.
- Can you prepare me for an examination?
- Yes — GCSE, A-Level and IB Italian, and the CILS and CELI certificates, including the B1 level used in citizenship and residency procedures.
- Could I learn in a group instead?
- Yes. We run small-group Italian terms of ten weeks, never more than six people, live in Central London and online from Tuesday to Thursday. Private tuition is faster and entirely your own; groups are more sociable and less expensive. Maria will say honestly which suits your goal.
- How quickly can I start?
- Most clients have a proposed tutor within a few days of the discovery call and a first lesson in the week that follows. A highly specific professional or dialect brief can take a little longer, because we would rather match well than match quickly.
Ready to start Italian?
Twenty minutes with Maria.
Tell her what you need Italian for, where you are now and how much time you honestly have. She will tell you how we would approach it — and who, from our network, she would match you with.
Maria Toubbe
- 20 minutes
- A conversation, not a sales call.
- With Maria
- Our founder, every time — not a call centre.
- No obligation
- Advice you can use even if you never book.
20 min · video call · free
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